Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Lebanon’s Hezbollah Acknowledges Its Presence In Iraq

Lebanese Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah recently
acknowledged that his group was involved in the war in Iraq. This came as no
surprise as Hezbollah advisers were said to be in Iraq soon after Mosul fell,
and in July one of its commanders died in the country. Just like Hezbollah’s
previous time in Iraq during the U.S. occupation it is working as an adjunct
for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

In a speech on February
16, 2015 Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah admitted that his organization
was active in Iraq. He said that it only had a “limited presence” in the
country, and called on others to join the fight not only in Iraq, but in Syria
as well. Nasrallah was stating the obvious since Hezbollah’s presence in Iraq
had been noted months beforehand.

After Mosul fell in June 2014, Nasrallah offered to protect
the shrines in Iraq. By the next month there were reports
that around 250 Hezbollah members were advising militias in Iraq in
coordination with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). That might
have increased to 500
since then. That was confirmed at the end of July when a Hezbollah commander
Ibrahim Mohammed al-Haj was killed
near Mosul. Haj was a veteran Hezbollah member who helped set off the July 2006
war with Israel. Since then there have been more reports of Hezbollah advisers
active along the frontlines. In October
for example, they were said to have helped in the operation to clear Babil’s
Jurf al-Sakhr. When Iran came to aid Iraq in June it was inevitable that
Hezbollah would enter the fray as well. Hezbollah is involved in most major
Iranian operations such as Syria currently and Iraq in the past.

In 2003
the IRGC Quds Force asked for Hezbollah’s assistance in Iraq to oppose the U.S.
occupation. Hezbollah deployed Unit 3800 to work with Iraqi militias. It
provided advisers, brought Iraqis to Lebanon for training, and provided funding
and weapons as well. It also worked hand in hand with the Quds Force on major operations
such as the January 2007 Asaib Ahl Al-Haq raid
upon the Joint Coordination Center in Karbala that killed five American
soldiers. Afterward Unit 3800 commander Ali Musa Daqduq was arrested for his
role in the attack. From 2003-2011 Hezbollah was brought in by Tehran to not
only facilitate its anti-American operations, but to help with its Iraqi
allies. The Iranians have a history of talking down to and mistreating Iraqis
dating back to the Iran-Iraq War when it put together the Badr Brigade to
oppose Saddam Hussein. Many Iraqi militiamen made similar complaints about
Iranians when they went to Iran for training post-03. Hezbollah being Arabs
were able to forge much better relations.

Hezbollah has consistently provided support for Iran in the
Middle East and internationally so it was no surprise when it re-entered Iraq
after the 2014 insurgent surge. It is currently playing the same role in Iraq
that it is doing in Syria providing support for the IRGC and irregular forces.
In fact, Hezbollah has worked with many of the same groups in both countries
such as Asaib Ahl Al-Haq, Kataib Hezbollah, the Badr Organization, the Khorasani
Brigade, and Abu Fadhl Al-Abbas Brigade. Its relationship with the first couple
groups goes back to the U.S. occupation as well. As long as Tehran is
militarily involved in Iraq so will Hezbollah.

SOURCES

ABC/AP, “Hezbollah Commander who
triggered the 2006 war Killed in Iraq,” 8/1/14

2 comments:

Will this degrade the ability for a central government to assert its control and policies over the whole country?Will it further increase sectarianism?What is your analysis of soo many states having their own personnel on the ground in Iraq having on its stability? Help or hindrance?

t wins no fans with some communities and increases stereotypes about Shiites being tools of Iran.

That being said in certain areas people are desperate for help against IS and have asked militias and all that comes with it to come in and help them so it's not such a cut and dry equation this time around.

The problem will be the day after of whether Baghdad will be able to assert control over all of these different groups and how much power they can retain within the state.

Iraq History Timeline

About Me

Musings On Iraq was started in 2008 to explain the political, economic, security and cultural situation in Iraq via original articles and interviews. I have written for the Jamestown Foundation, Tom Ricks’ Best Defense at Foreign Policy and the Daily Beast, and was responsible for a chapter in the book Volatile Landscape: Iraq And Its Insurgent Movements. My work has been published in Iraq via NRT, AK News, Al-Mada, Sotaliraq, All Iraq News, and Ur News all in Iraq. I was interviewed on BBC Radio 5, Radio Sputnik, CCTV and TRT World News TV, and have appeared in CNN, the Christian Science Monitor, The National, Columbia Journalism Review, Mother Jones, PBS’ Frontline, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Institute for the Study of War, Radio Free Iraq, Rudaw, and others. I have also been cited in Iraq From war To A New Authoritarianism by Toby Dodge, Imagining the Nation Nationalism, Sectarianism and Socio-Political Conflict in Iraq by Harith al-Qarawee, ISIS Inside the Army of Terror by Michael Weiss and Hassan Hassahn, The Rise of the Islamic State by Patrick Cocburn, and others. If you wish to contact me personally my email is: motown67@aol.com